It will soon be Car-Hiding time!

National elections take place every five years here and 2009 is an election year. Guess what? The government can take your car for election duty! Your own private car! A policeman or party official can stop you on the street, take down your car information and then give you a paper telling you when and where to bring your car. And you have to do it! It is kinda like jury duty. You have to show up, but if you present a compelling reason why your car cannot be used, then you are excused (doctors usually don't have to give up their cars). And once you give your car, you are exempt from car duty for a while.

You get reimbursed for the use of your car, but I have heard that the cars usually come back trashed. And friends tell me that people will hide their cars for a while until after the election period. So, I started getting really worried until I found out that they typically target big cars and we have one of the smallest ones around!

This pic of our car was taken during one of the lighter monsoon floods last year

But still!!! Anyway, here is an article entitled "Car-pull on ballot eve - Wary owners shield private vehicles from police on the prowl" from a few years back about the whole thing.